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Flood of Fire

A Novel

"The final novel in the bestselling Ibis Trilogy. It is 1839 and China has embargoed the trade of opium, yet too much is at stake in the lucrative business and the British Foreign Secretary has ordered the colonial government in India to assemble an expeditionary force for an attack to reinstate the trade. Among those consigned is Kesri Singh, a soldier in the army of the East India Company. He makes his way eastward on the Hind, a transport ship that will carry him from Bengal to Hong Kong. Along the way, many characters from the Ibis Trilogy come aboard, including Zachary Reid, a young American speculator in opium futures, and Shireen, the widow of an opium merchant whose mysterious death in China has compelled her to seek out his lost son. The Hind docks in Hong Kong just as war breaks out and opium "pours into the market like monsoon flood." From Bombay to Calcutta, from naval engagements to the decks of a hospital ship, among embezzlement, profiteering, and espionage, Amitav Ghosh charts a breathless course through the culminating moment of the British opium trade and vexed colonial history."-- Provided by publisher.

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If you haven’t read the first two books in the Ibis trilogy you need to understand the history of the British trade in opium. In particular, you need to read it if you blame the Chinese for the Chinese opium problem. Although the battle scenes were too detailed for me, they are a very necessary part of the British conquest of Hong Kong. By created a detailed story involving Chinese, British and Indians, this important period of British, Indian and Chinese history comes alive.

There are few characters to admire in this book and lots of turmoil and strange words. I liked Shireen and was happy she broke out of her cage that Indian society imposed on her. I thought I liked Zachary but he was a bully in the end. I wanted the best for Raju but maybe that's because I didn't remember what happened to him in Book 1.
A challenging trilogy but sure made me read up on the First Opium War!

You really do need to have read the other two books if you're tackling this one. There's much detail about the military execution of the First Opium War. If you've read all three, you're left with an overwhelming respect for the research and detail in this series.

A book about opium is bound to be read let alone a series! No heroes in these stories which I naively expected with the first book. Everybody has feet of clay, however, and either succumbs to adultery, murder, opium (selling, smoking), etc. In other words, nothing new r/t to drug trade, what has been will always be. Still, I enjoyed the series in that I learned, finally, what the opium wars were really all about.